Indigenous knowledges and vegetation use among bedouin in the Eastern Desert of Egypt

Although modernization theory has dominated development discourses since 1945, there are now calls to reframe the debates. In particular, an interest has developed in indigenous knowledges. This paper explores knowledges related to the use and management of vegetation by bedouin in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, using distance matrix ranking as a research method. The study demonstrates the importance and value of recognizing indigenous knowledges, but cautions against overvalorizing them, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.